TORONTO - Talk about breaking his concentration. Samuel L. Jackson managed to catch a weekend Raptors basketball game. Other than that, he has been almost invisible since arriving here to shoot The Caveman's Valentine.

"I sleep all day," says Jackson. "I'm kind of in a vampire mode."

Why? Jackson and the rest of the cast and crew are doing night shoots here, and will be for 70% of the Toronto filming. Jackson plays a street weirdo living in Manhattan's Central Park who finds a body on Valentine's Day in front of his homemade cave. The strange dude proceeds to investigate the murder, which introduces him into the SoHo art world.

Seems interesting, but Jackson should've paid attention to the night shoot demands before doing the project.

"I get to work," Jackson reports, "and it's dark. I come home, and it's dark. I go to bed in the dark and when I get up, it's dark. It's like living in Finland somewhere."

He will be free on weekends to catch some upcoming Raptors games. It's his favourite team. The organization gave him clearance to let his Jackie Brown character carry a bag with a Raptors emblem on it.

So, besides struggling with light deprivation, Jackson is facing a busy schedule. He's shooting The Caveman's Valentine until late April, then he'll start M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable in Philadelphia with Bruce Willis. Come August, he heads for Australia to begin George Lucas's second Star Wars prequel as Mace Windu.

If you want some more immediate Jackson business, look for him in Rules Of Engagement, which opens in early April. Then catch him in the redo of Shaft this summer. Jackson plays Shaft's nephew in the modern update. Richard Rountree does Shaft again.

"I'm tough, angry and mean," he says of his character. "All of those things. But Richard is still the black private dick who is a sex machine with all the chicks. I'm learning from him." Right on.


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